A two-day national seminar on ‘Sustainability of seafood production’ was jointly organised by the Society for Indian Ocean Studies, New Delhi and the National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, at the NIO Cardium, Goa recently. The Chief Minister of Goa, Mr Pratapsingh Rane, whose speech was read out in his absence, said that the phenomenon of mass migration to aquatic breeding grounds needs an in-depth study, wherein environmental conditions and other oceanographic phenomenon have to be studied along with fish behaviour.
Mr Rane’s speech further observed that satellite imagery would play an important role in locating fish shoals during the fishing season. The state government is committed to provide all required facilities as recommended by the central government for the development of the fish industry, he assured.
The Chief Minister also stated in his speech that the topic of the national seminar was important as it was high time the seafood production was discussed, as it has not remained sustainable.
“Unlike other sectors of agriculture, we find large variations in sea food production, from year to year,” he observed, adding that although the fish production has increased in a big way in recent years, there has been large fluctuations on annual basis in it.
Dr S Aiyyappan, the deputy director general of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, speaking on the occasion insisted on evolving a knowledge-based sea management programme. “A knowledge-based master plan is the need of the hour for ensuring resource resilience, sustainability, environmental health and habitat management,” he said.
Dr Aiyyappan also said that the seafood production development scenario in India should be viewed in the context of the global environment and resource management plan vis-a-vis the development and sustainability issues in our country.
